Apocalypstick
by enitnelavkcin
Summary: Marilyn Sole was a lawyer and new mother before her life got ripped from her in the strangest of ways. Now instead of friendly but nervous neighbors right next door, she has to deal with giant roaches and the apocalypse on top of finding the people who kidnapped her infant son. M rated for violence, strong language, and possible sexual content later on.
1. Up and Atom

Marilyn Sole did not expect her day to go like this. She didn't normally expect her days to go as planned but this… this was watching hell rise above the horizon. It had started out normal, she and Nate had been preparing for the veterans banquet when a man came to their door. While Nate tended a fussy Shaun, their four month old son, Mary answered the door. The man was chipper, but nervous, shifting glances down the street and back to her as he talked about Nates service to the country, and how it earned them a spot in a vault, the governments solution to the impending doom of a nuclear attack. She kept the conversation short and polite, his nervousness rubbing off on her and making her stomach churn in anticipation of danger.  
As the door closed, Shaun started crying. Codsworth had called to the living room that he wasn't calming down, and that she should try, as she was good at it. She was, very good. Being a mother had been a tough decision to make, with months of decision making with Nate, but she was glad she had agreed to bear children. And now? They had a beautiful son. As she calmed the boy down, Nate watched her from the doorway, commenting that he had fixed the mobile on Shauns crib. She gave it a spin, admiring their son as he giggled happily.  
Codsworth called from the living room, and despite him being a robot, the discomfort in his voice was painfully obviousy. _Flashes, blinding flashes_ the man on the TV said, grim eyes and tightly drawn lips displaying the mood of the report. _Explosions._ New York and Pennsylvania were gone, and the alarms in their little town were going crazy. They needed to get to the Vault, Nate grabbing Shaun, and they were out the door. Panic rose in her chest as the sirens got louder, screams from their neighbors as the whole town jogged towards the Vault location. _All residents of Sanctuary Hills, if you are registered, evacuate to Vault 111 immediately_ a voice overran the siren, announcing. A soldier, set at the edge of a neighbors fence waved his hands, beckoning the residents to follow his direction.  
Over a bridge, along little hills they ran, Nate clutching their baby close, til they reached the fence. People clung to the fence, protested, scared and agitated at not being let in. The representative from earlier stood in front of a soldier, pale as a sheet, as he learned he wasn't on the list to get in. Mary passed, as did her husband and son, and she thanked her lucky stars that her husband was a soldier, and that it meant something to this country. A soldier led them up a little further til a platform came into sight, and amongst the panic and fear, all she could remember thinking was that it was smaller than she expected. There were five other people there, people that she had gotten to know, with bake sales and cookouts and happy times that now seemed insignificant against the fear.  
The platform started to move, slowly, down, and that's when the world truly ended. An explosion in the distance, bright, and as beautiful as it was horrifying , and a deafening sound that left Marys head spinning. She couldn't draw her eyes away, oh god it was going to kill them all racing through her head as everyone around her ducked and crouched as if that could keep the world from crashing down around them. Dust swirled around them as their heads just came down past the brim, and the surface world disappeared behind the vault doors above the platform closed, and the people inside were safe from the outside devastation.  
Friends, neighbors, enemies, all gone in an instaneous moment, but she someone made it, her family was okay, safe behind closed doors. The survivors hurried quickly off the elevator and up the stairs as directed, the voice a distant thought as she processed what just happened. Further ahead, past the catalogue station there were other people, assumeably Vault-Tech employees, but other humans who had made it safely in none the less. Mary smiled a little as she recognized a few. One woman, one of the ones she didn't recognize, was dressed in a blue one piece suite with yellow trim and yellow numbers on it.  
A doctor led her and the others she had come with down a long hallway, windows into any number of strange rooms filled with generators or water filters or whatever in the world they were on either side. They were led deep into the vault, into a room filled with pods with windows in them, about head to chest level. _Step in here_ the doctor had said, pointing at the pod she stood next to, the one across from Nate and Shaun. She slid her Vault suit on first, then stepped up. The pod was to decontaminate and depressurize before they were to be shown to their quarters. Oh, if only Mary knew then what she knew now.  
 _Resident secure. Occupant Vitals: Normal._ The computer droned as the temperature inside the pod dropped, and Mary started feeling a little drowsy. _Procedure complete in 5._ She could barely hear anything over her own breathing. _4._ She wondered idly what life underground would be like. _3._ The lack of sun would be the hardest part, she figured. _2._ Everything went foggy, and the window in front of her rapidly iced over, and she vaguely remembered watching Nate calming Shaun down in his own pod before everything went black.

 _1._

Seconds passed before her vision returned, the muffled sound of the computers voice audible, saying something about an override. Her breath shuddered with the cold that was making her shiver. Someone came into view, pointing to Nates pod, their voices barely discerneable at first. "This is the one, here." A woman said, and then a man stepped into view. "Open it" he said to someone out of her sight. She tried to speak, but nothing came from her shockingly dry throat, so she just watched as she tried to moisten her mouth enough to be heard. Nates pod opened slowly, and after a moment, he let out a gasp, his arms tightening protectively around Shaun, who started crying in a confused little sound. Nates voice was muffled, but she could hear what he was saying well enough. "Is it over? Are we all OK?". He asked, looking between the mysterious figures.  
The man responded, an almost sullen sound to his voice "Almost. Everythings going to be fine.". The woman reached into the pod, going for Shaun, speaking to him softly. Nate recoiled, pulling the baby away from the woman before him. "No, wait! Ive got him!" he insisted, expression twisting into confusion and protectiveness. He refused to hand the crying babe over.  
Marys heart stopped in her chest as the man drew a gun and pointed it at Nates head. "Let the boy go. Im only going to tell you once." He said, his voice rough, and Nates eyes opened wide with anger as he kept his child away from them. "Im not giving you Shaun!" he yelled, glaring the man in the eyes. A gunshot ended Nates life in a single moment, his arms jerking back to his sides, releasing their son in his moment of death. Mary was shocked into her silence further as she just watched, her heart breaking a million different ways.  
Now in the strange womans arms, Shaun cried harder, the sound of the gunshot no doubt hurting his ears. Mary couldn't hear what was being said over her panicked breathing before the man approached, and she imprinted his image into her mind, balding head and a dark scar stretching from his temple to the top of his cheek, crossing over his left eye but not impending its use. "At least we still have the backup." He murmured, looking her up and down with pity through the glass. Mary could do nothing as they walked away and the fogginess started up again.

 _Cryogenic sequence reinitialized._

She came back to the feeling of pain in her chest, and a cough ripping its way through her throat, an alarm blaring around her. _  
Critical failure in Cryogenic Array. All Vault residence must vacate immediately.  
_ The cold lessened and she felt air brush across her face as the seals on the pod loosened up, and soon the lid was lifting up. She fell out onto her knees, just gasping for breath, everything but this moment feeling like a distant memory. Her body felt like jelly as she looked around, panting and shuddering as her nerves fired off. She looked up, at the pod across from her, and the memory came rushing back. She stood unsteadily and stumbled to Nates pod, hands on the surface as she looked through the window. Nate was slumped over, Frost covering his body. Denial filled her thoughts and she started looking around for a release.  
she flipped the red switch next to his pod and stepped back, waiting impatiently for his pod to open all the way. She rushed up to Nate, hands moving over his cold body, and it hit her just how real this was, and just how real what she was starting to think had been a fever dream actually was. She let out a soft sob, hands shaking as she moved to his hand, sliding off his wedding ring and sliding it onto her finger next to her own. She would find who did this, bring Shaun back, make everything right.  
She turned to the other pods around the room, trying to open them up as well, but was met with resistance and nothing to show. She had no choice right now but to leave them here. She turned towards the exit, stumbling on unsteady feet up the short stairs. She opened the door, wondering why Vault-Tec would do such things, confusion muddying her judgement and instantly laying blame on them, though the only thing she had against them was that they had lied to them, and cryogenically froze them instead of it being just a decontamination procedure. She wandered back through the hallway she had gone through what seemed like both minutes and centuries ago, looking through the same windows to see the metal was no longer shiny and new, and instead appeared to be dulled and rusting over a little.  
Street cones and a toolbox sat in her path, things that hadn't been there before, in front of a sealed off door. She grabbed a wrench to defend herself with and turned towards another door off to the side, sliding it open and stepping down the stairs. Various messages blared over the intercom, and she looked around, realizing that the pleasant light that had lit up her path before was dimmed, and the light hallways were now covered in grime like they had been left to gather dust for many years. She crept through several doors, the lack of any apparent life making her uneasy.  
A sound like tiny, hard foot steps sounded somewhere in front of her, and she raised the wrench defensively, looking around. Her eyes locked on a roach, but a roach like she had never seen before. Sitting at least two feet long from head to tail, antennae as thick as a cord twitching in the air as it alerted to her presence. She let out a frightened scream and scrambled back, the creature darting towards her, the intent to attack clear in its movements. She brought her wrench forward and looked away, feeing a wet splatter against her cheek as the wrench made contact right behind the roaches head, popping it off with a loud crunch and an unearthly squeal from the beast. She sat there for a moment, waiting for it to get back up and launch at her again. When it didn't, she barely peaked her eyes open at it, forgetting about the goo on her face as she stared at the giant roach, wondering what the hell brought it into existence.  
She observed it for a few minutes, processing its existence and that yes, it is real, but more importantly it was aggressive but could be killed quickly. She walked forward, her only goal to escape this place. She was evn more on the defensive than before, eyes peeled for any more of the roaches as she crept past a kitchen, through a door into a room filled with sounds of electricity as bright little flashes passed between two large generators. Thankfully a path went around the dangerous field.  
She turned the corner and was met with two more of the giant roaches, but this time she was prepared. She reared the wrench back and brought it down hard on the firs one, popping its head of like she had done accidentally the first time. The second one launched at her wings buzzing loudly as it came up into her face. She swung the wrench like a bat and knocked the bug to the side, and without hesitation brought it down for the kill before the bug could reorganize itself. She didn't stop swinging til the thing was nothing but bits of hard outer shell and mushy green goop. She sat on her knees for a moment, catching her breath, ginger hair loosed from the bun she had put it in that morning now draping over her freckled face, drenched in sweat.  
She looked to the side, and that's when she noticed the half shredded vault suit sitting like a deflated balloon over the off white skeleton of whoever had been wearing it before. It lay there, splayed out, on its chest, painfully obvious that whoever it was didn't die of natural causes. She approached it slowly, looking it over with her eyes only, swallowing hard. She didn't understand what was going on but it was clear that her time in the Cryostasis was much longer than a few minutes, or hours, or even days. It could have even been months. Years. The thought terrified her. She looked through the door to her left and headed through til she reached what looked like an office.  
Another skeleton sat to the side of a fallen chair, a bullet hole clean through one side of the skull. She looked around at the doorways, the ruddy red and chipping desk, wondering what the hell happened here. Her eyes locked on something shiny, and her mind quickly recognized it as being a gun next to an open box of shells, and part of her had to wonder if the man in the chair had ended his own life. She looked over the gun, determining it was a 10mm hand gun, and she counted out fifteen bullets in the box, plus what looked like three in the gun. She held the gun up, testing the weight and the feel in her hand. It was good, and the gun itself didn't look to dirty either.  
She looked around, searching for her next move. She spotted a door labeled ' _evacuation tunnel_ ' across from the desk, and headed to it. When it didn't open, panic threatened to choke her again and she fretted that she would be stuck here forever, then her logic took over and she thought back to how things worked before. Everything seemed to be computerized. She looked over at the desk and spotted the terminal. "Bingo." She muttered, striding back over and getting onto the still working desktop. She opened the evacuation tunnel and headed through, remembering how James Bond looked when he had to stealthily get through something. She held the gun up and crept along her path, peeking down the tunnel before walking in.  
A sort of chirp stopped her in her tracks and she looked ahead, her eyes widening as a cluster of at the very least six of the roaches started crawling towards her like something form a horror film. She caught her breath and lifted the gun up, firing and missing twice before she turned and ran back. She faced the roaches again, this time taking a deep breath before she thought back to what Nate had taught her. Holding the gun, breath. Aim it, breath. Deep breath, hold, and- She pulled the trigger, hitting the roach in the lead. She sprinted back into the office, a little shakily reloading her gun as adrenaline pumped through her veins. She raised her gun again and repeated the process, killing off the remaining roaches as they came through the door. Free from their threat for now, she trudged forward.  
Following what sounded like air and machinery, she found herself near a large door. Several skeletons littered the path to the button that would send her to the through. She pressed it, flinching when a voice sounded over the intercom. "Pip Boy interface required to activate Vault door cycling sequence. Have a nice day.". She sighed and pressed her palm to her forehead. Where the hell would she get one of those? Amidst her groaning and debating, she happened to look down, and lo and behold, the dead guy at her feet had one. She collected it and put it on, checking its settings and that it still worked. She wiped the dust from its screen as it booted up and tapped into her vitals to get a reading. Everything seemed find, other than her increased heartrate and the sudden realization that she was starving. She shook it off and went back to escaping.  
Before her hand hit the button, however, she stopped, thinking about the skeletons around her and the strange giant cockroaches that she had seen. How long had she been in here? How much more of the world had changed? The thought of other things being bigger than they should be made her stomach churn. God above she hoped there weren't any giant snakes. She took a deep breath and swallowed away her doubt. She had a mission, and whatever was out there, she was sure she could handle. She was smart, strong, and Nate had taught her plenty about self defense and survival, along with her own research. She couldn't put off going to the surface any longer unless she planned on dying down here.  
She plugged the pip boy into the interface and slammed the button, looking around as a loud horn sounded and the intercom spoke again, vocalizing the activation. The door rolled open with a groan, a bright llight shining through. She crossed the path that led through the door and into the room with the platform, looking nearly exactly as she remembered it. She went down the stairs slowly as the elevator platform lowered, and waited patiently by the gate for it to be ready. When she was finally able to step onto the platform, she couldn't help but notice how shaky she was in both excitement and apprehension.  
The platform started going up, her mind racing faster than a computer interface as she contemplated what she would see, or if she would even survive for a minute once she got a gulp of surface air. Everything went dark for a few moments before the doors above her parted open with a loud creak and a blinding light forced her to squint and try to block its directness with her arm. The platform groaned with its age and wear as it brought her to the surface and to a grinding halt. She lowered her arm, and her eyes finally adjusted to an achingly familiar yet foreign wasteland.


	2. Familiar Circuits

Her heart pounded in her chest, a deafening reminder that she was still alive to witness what was shown before her. The trees were barren and spiky, and there were more than she remembered. The grass was no longer well kempt and green but brown and gone in many places, replaced by an oddly colored dirt. She looked out to the horizon, seeing the little town she had lived in before, the walls of the houses torn to shreds and in a few cases collapsed in on itself. She turned in a circle, slow, taking in the sight of the new world. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and feeling a thickness in the air, making her lungs feel ever so slightly raw. She turned he gaze back towards the ruined town, making her way there for some sort of start.  
For such a short distance, it took her some time to get there, as every little thing was new and old at the same time. She wandered up into the town, pace matching her heart now as she sped in the direction of her broken down home. A familiar metallic frame came into view, tears prickling in her eyes as she stumbled up to a still functioning Codsworth. "C-Codsworth!" she gasped in excitement. The robot responded, turning to face her, surprise in his voice "As I live and breathe!" he exclaimed, hovering closer to her. His voice came out half choked, as If he were suppressing tears from spilling over despite his inability to do so physically "I-Its really you!".  
She clung to his body, pressing her forehead against his cool surface. "This… This isn't happening…". She murmured, her tears staining her cheeks as she let out soft whimpers and swallowing back her sobs. "C-Codsworth- Codsworth the world- everything- its gone, all gone.". Codsworth hovered carefully, keeping himself still for her comfort. "Well, ah- yes, mum, the bombs went off.". He made a few clicking sounds before continuing "But youre distraught, mum! Perhaps sir could offer one of those hugs you humans are so fond of? Speaking of, where is your better half?". Codsworths innocent question sent another whimper pouring from her lips and she started coughing, sinking to the ground as she tried to calm herself down. Codsworth let out a worried _oh my!_ and watched her carefully.  
"They…. They came in the vault.." She murmured when she could finally speak clearly enough to be understood "They…. They took Shaun from him, he wouldn't let them though, he wouldn't let go of Shaun- oh god he was so brave-" she pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to stop the tears. "Hes…. Codsworth hes dead. They shot him to get Shaun, I don't know why they did it.". She looked up at Codsworth, rubbing the snot off of her nose with her sleeve. To say she was an ugly crier would be a major understatement. Codsworth moved his crab like claw hand down, brushing it over her cheek to wipe away her tears, or attempt to at least, though his metal made the tear simply roll to the side. "Mum, these things youre saying" he began, his voice a little softer "These…. Terrible things. I believe you need a distraction . Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood.".  
She let out a sharp snort "I don't need a distraction, I need my family back!". Codsworth helped Mary to her feet, insistently straightening her clothes. "You must be suffering from… Hunger induced paranoia. Not eating properly for two-hundred years will do that, Im afraid.". Marys head snapped up to look at Codsworth, eyes widening. "T-Two-Hundred years?!". Codsworth floated towards the front door of what used to be her house, leading her along. "Closer to two-hundred and ten years, to be exact. Give or take a little for the earths rotation and a few dings to the chronometer.". She blinked several times, breaking into a cold sweat. They just made it past the back of the couch when she fell to her knees, stomach boiling over with the nerves and a nasty sour paste made its way up her throat and onto her tongue before flowing out of her mouth and splattering to the floor. Codsworth mad sounds of surprise, sticking by her side and patting her back until she finished retching. He floated of into another room while she focused more on not falling into another bout of sickness.  
Codsworth returned shortly with a dirty cloth and a half open can of beans, handing them both over to her. "Come now, mum, youll be much more comfortable on the couch rather than the floor. I do apologize for the state of the place, two-hundred years of decay is very hard to keep at bay.". She stood shakily, moving over to the couch and settling down to wipe her face and sniff the beans she wasn't quite ready to eat. She took a deep breath, apologizing about the vomit. Codsworth waited patiently for her to rest a little, using another rag and some old cleaning fluid to clean up the mess.  
After sitting there for nearly an hour, just thinking about the state of the world, she finally started in on the cold beans, drinking them like a chunky soup. It made her feel better, and her stomach slowly stopped churning. After finishing the beans, she let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead. "How much food and water do we have?" she asked, certain that the robot had catalogued the supplies more than once, as he was prone to do. He floated in front of her, taking a moment to recollect the information. "We have six cans of beans, a can of mixed vegetables, a can of beef stew, three nuka colas, and a few bottles of water, but they are not necessarily clean. I took the liberty of collecting the med kit as well while you were eating. You have two Stimpaks and one Radaway.". She nodded slowly as he spoke. That was enough food and water to get her a good ways away, and she had no time to waste. She needed to learn this world as fast as she can. She looked up at him again. "Is Nates pistol still where it was stored?" she asked, standing up.  
Codsworth watched her inquisitively. "I believe so, mum, though it is locked and I do not have the key.". Mary nodded. "He kept a key in the dresser, under a loose piece of the bottom board.". She headed to the bedroom, ignoring the room that she knew had held Shauns crib, and before all this, Saun himself. She went into the bedroom she shared with Nate, staring at the torn bedsheets, around at the walls, the closet and their mixed clothes. She looked down at herself, and the bright blue and yellow that she now associated with betrayal. She stripped the suit off, going to the closet and pulling out her least ruined shirt and a pair of pants, dusting them both off. Her eyes fell on the thick camo jacket that lay crumpled on the floor of the closet. She picked it up and handled it with care, slowly brushing the dirt and grime from it. It was stained in places, the color faded a little, the patch over his breastpocket spelling out 'Sole' in stiff letters.  
She was so proud of Nate, of all he had done for the country. If he hadn't, she and their son would be amongst the skeletons around the broken down gate, or perhaps she would be a skeleton in new york, where she had lived before meeting Nate. They had met in an unconventional way. She was seventeen, living with her mother in new york, when she joined the letters for soldiers program. She was assigned a soldier, Nathaniel Sole. Their letters started out innocent enough, she made it clear she was underage and was only writing as a friend. A year passed, and she learned more about him than she intended to at first, about what he hoped for, how many kids he wanted, everything from his favorite color to what he wanted his future to be like. _No war is what I want_ he had written to her _and a pretty little wife and a dynamic family, two point five kids. We can be whoever we want together, she supports my dreams and I support hers. Maybe a robot nanny too._ At the time, she hadn't expected that the pretty little wife would be her. She had spilled to him about Jimmy Rochen, her highschool crush, and he had written back with encouragements. Three years total she had been writing him, and it had been when she was in college that she finally got to see him face to face for the first time. Eight years difference between them, but neither let that stop them from embracing at the airport, best friends at the time, but a few months later he asked her to be his girlfriend. A year after that they were married and found out she was pregnant, she had Shaun, and then it was all gone.  
She felt tears welling up again, and pushed the memories away like they were brand set on claiming her and throwing amongs the ashes of a past life. She set the jacket down and moved to the dresser, salvaging a fresh set of undergarments and changing completely. She grabbed the key and the locked box from under the bed, pulling out Nates handgun and the three boxes of ammo that sat next to it. She checked and loaded the gun, thankful that the box kept it preserved all this time. Thirty bullets total for this gun and four for the 10mm she also had. She turned back to the military jacket on the bed, debating leaving it behind, at least for now. She decided against that, though, and quickly slid it over her shoulders, sliding her arms into the sleeves and relishing the warmth it brought to her. It felt almost like he was still here, arms wrapped around her waist with that love he had given her, and all the love he no longer had the chance to give. Part of her wanted to pretend that in some ways, he really was still here.  
Mary walked out of the bedroom, once again ignoring Shauns room, and back into the living room. "I must say mum, despite the jackets size, it looks rather good on you." Codsworth commented, handing her a Nuka Cola. She popped it open and tucked the cap into her pocket absently before taking a swig. "Ok. Ok Codsworth I need you to gather up all those supplies that you mentioned earlier and put them in a bag of some sort, like a backpack or something." She strode into the kitchen and started rummaging around, chewing the dried skin from her lip and spitting it to the floor, a nervous habit she had when she was a toddler, that still made a debut on the occasion with she was stressed.  
Codsworth floated by, doing as asked quietly. Mary salvaged a steak knife, and a chopping knife , a box of matches with fraying edges, a small container of Crisco, and a half full container of salt. Codsworth came back swiftly, an old knapsack in tow. "If I may ask, Mrs Mary, what do you need this for?" he asked, handing it over. Mary slid her new supplies inside, along with the old wrench, and threw the back over her shoulder. "Im going to find my son, and the people who killed Nate.". Codsworth whirred worriedly, lower part of his body spinning a little. "Do you wish for me to accompany you, mum?". Mary shook her head, giving him a small smile. "No, Codsworth, but thank you. I need you here. Fix up this house as much as you can, salvage anything you think might be worth it. If you can, patch holes in the walls, take scraps and gather supplies from the other houses if there is anything to salvage. Stuff like radios and anything that can still turn on are pretty important, as well as food and medical stuff. Clothes would be nice too." She put a hand to her hip and thought for a second "Don't do anything to rash or daring, OK? Id like someone familiar to come home to.". The robot lifted his claw up and did what could only be described as a very strange bow, as best as a floating ball with claws could do "I will do what I can, mum. Do be sure to come back and visit on occasion, and please… don't die.".  
Mary smiled softly and gave a soft chuckle, chewing her lower lip again before she turned away and headed out the door. "Don't worry Codsworth, Ill be sure to come visit as often as I can.". She closed the door behind her and looked at the path stretched out before her, prepping herself mentally for whatever she may see in this new wasteland.


End file.
